Once out of the cramped confines of town, the XL1 calms down considerably. While doing zero to 100km/h in 12.7 seconds reads more like a statistic from the brochure of a boring family saloon, the XL1’s engine and electric motor are able to handle even the most urgent of overtaking manoeuvres. Torque, by the way, is limited to preserve the delicate 7-speed gearbox, and top speed is restricted to 160km/h. That’s probably as fast as you would ever want to drive on those skinny tyres.
At speed, the suspension feels a lot less fussy and tames the roads better. The noise coming from the bitumen is also more muted. Likewise, the steering feel improves dramatically as the speed climbs, and there is a lot of feedback. However, the steering wheel loads up alarmingly when taking tight corners at speed, which is a shame as the XL1 otherwise handles like a low-slung coupe should.
The electric-only driving mode lasts 50km or until the juice in the battery falls to 14 per cent. When that happens, the engine starts to maintain the charge and propel the vehicle, but it will not fully recharge the battery. To do so, you have to plug the car’s “power point” into a socket at home. Recharging takes around an hour.
While the quoted fuel consumption figure is 0.9L per 100km, the VW staffer with me throughout the test drive clarified that the actual consumption is 0.83L per 100km (European Union laws require that the number in the first decimal place be rounded up to the next highest figure, regardless of the decimal number). Given the XL1’s tiny 10-litre fuel tank, this gives an official range of over 500 kilometres.
It isn’t 1110 kilometres (111km/L multiplied by 10 litres) because the New European Driving Cycle, or NEDC, measures the mileage of a plug-in hybrid differently. NEDC calculations are based on the assumption that the car is run on its battery power alone until it runs out of energy, after which the combustion engine takes over till it runs out of fuel, and the amount of fuel used is then divided over the whole distance travelled to arrive at the NEDC combined fuel consumption, which is 0.9L/100km in the case of the XL1.
The highlight of the cabin is its seating arrangement. The two thinly padded, ultra-light seats (each is half the weight of a conventional seat) are positioned almost side-by-side, with the one for the passenger placed slightly aft of the driver’s. This clever idea ensures that both occupants have adequate shoulder room, without needing the car to be any wider.
This interior layout is much better than the original tandem design. My passenger (also a six-footer like me) and I had no trouble finding a really comfortable sitting position. There’s even space for 120 litres of cargo under the boot, behind the engine.
The largely black fascia looks rather sombre, but the cabin is delightfully simple and unadorned. There’s an instrument binnacle from the Up supermini, a selection of Polo and Up switches on the centre console, and a prominent Garmin display giving navigation, engine and fuel economy information.
The VW XL1 is beautifully engineered, incredibly efficient and as technologically advanced as any car in the market today. It is an unlikely “supercar” that might redefine how actual supercars will be like in the future. Too bad only 250 units of the XL1 will be made, and none of them is destined for our shores.
Volkswagen XL1 0.8 (A)
ENGINE 800cc, inline-2, 8-valves, turbo-diesel hybrid
MAX POWER 48bhp
(total system output 70bhp)
MAX TORQUE 120Nm
(total system output 140Nm)
GEARBOX 7-speed dual-clutch
0-100KM/H 12.7 seconds
TOP SPEED 160km/h (governed)
CONSUMPTION 111.1km/L (combined)
CO2 EMISSION 21g/km
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